Friday 30 December 2022

Fnurban #21: a little quiz

 I hope everyone had a pleasant Xmas, if you celebrate it.  Now, one evening over the holiday period we watched a DVD ( yes I know, a bit old-school, no streaming services here ) - 'Knives Out' ( 2019 ) by Rian Johnson, starring Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer, Jamie Lee Curtis and many, many more. During the course of the film, something kept nagging at my mind, and at the end I did a little internet searching.. 

The result was that I congratulated myself on one of the few 'film nerd' moments I got right - I love the cinema, but these days I don't know who any of the actors or directors  are any more.  Powell and Pressburger and Kieslowski were my obsessions, and they are long gone  - though Almodovar is still producing his immaculately-mounted twaddle ( I mean that as a compliment!), so there is hope for me yet. 

Anyhoo, having spotted this little detail, I think it might make a festive quiz question for you all - and it has a 'military history' angle : the quesiton being,  what is the link between 'Knives Out' ...


      ...and Ken Burns' classic documentary series 'The American Civil War' ? 


No prizes for this, it's just a bit of festive fun.  I hope it's not too easy, or already widely discussed in the blogosphere - I may have been a bit slow on the uptake! 

Answers in the comments please -  I will use the moderation to hold back the correct answers for a day or two.  Wrong-uns will be published immediately - humourous answers welcome.  And of course, there may be links other than the one I am thinking of - it will be interesting to see if anything comes up! 

Watch this space for answers:  meanwhile keep well, everyone, and have a Happy New Year!  

*** UPDATE ***   The answer was of course, that Daniel Craig based his character Benoit Blanc's accent on that of the historian Shelby Foote, who was prominent among the experts appearing in Ken Burns' ACW series.  

Craig himself says : Shelby Foote was my inspiration. He’s a historian. If you ever saw the Ken Burns documentary, the Civil War  documentary...  It just said a southern accent but then we talked about it, we were talking about oh, we want it to be sonorous and honeyed, we started throwing back and forth references. We didn’t want it to be twangy and annoying so Shelby Foote came to mind.

Congratulations to Jon FreitagEpictetus and Chris aka Nundanket for giving the correct answer - much kudos to them!  Jon was quickest on the buzzer - luckily I didn't offer a prize, or I would now be shelling out for postage to the USA 😀

As Jon says,  Foote’s distinctive drawl is almost immediately recognizable.  He had a very stately, proper, and southern gentlemanly delivery and tone in his voice.  He was a great storyteller and writer too.   Here he is, in a tiny snippet from the series :


If you've not seen the Burns ACW series, I'd recommend it highly.  'Knives Out' ain't bad, either.

Thanks all, hope it was fun! 


12 comments:

  1. Happy New Year, David! Craig sounds a lot like Shelby Foote to my ear. Is that the connection?

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    1. Thanks Jon, you are of course correct! And you were first with the right answer, too!

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  2. My first thought is atrocious Southern United States accents!
    Sensible answer is, was the ACW series narrated by Christopher Plummer?
    Neil

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    1. Thanks Neil, actually your first guess is a pretty good one! Watch this space - several got it right straight away..

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  3. I can’t give an answer without Googling, so I will step back and let the true film buffs bathe in glory. I’m glad someone remembers DVD! :-) I picked up two for the hols. Operation Mincemeat we watched on Christmas evening and for New Years Eve I have Dune.

    Happy New Year.

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    1. Thanks Norm, watch this space for the answer, quite soon..
      I pop into London now and again to a shop called Fopp, which caters to us luddites who still want to buy DVDs and CDs. Hope you enjoyed your films, and a Happy New Year to you!

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  4. It's Shelby Foote. I remember reading it somewhere when the film came out. I've just seen the sequel, Glass Onion, and I thought Craig's accent was actually slightly less peculiar this time.

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    1. Thanks Epictetus, you are of course right! I will give 'Glass Onion' a go - though it may have to wait a year or so, until the DVD is available for £3 in Fopp, like the last one..

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  5. Did Daniel Craig base his accent on Shelby Foote? ;-)
    See 5 seconds in to this: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi559595289/?listId=ls093405086&ref_=tt_eds_center-3_pop_105_ko_i

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBSvgXxXyEE

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    1. Thanks Chris, you are our third winner! In exalted company, of course...

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  6. Not having seen the film I'm happy someone knew the answer. Foote's southern gentleman's accent does set a mood. (also reminds me a bit of DeForest Kelley ('Bones' on the original Startrek) , also a southerner but from Georgia. Anyway...

    May you and your wife have a great new year.

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    1. Thank you, Ross - and for reminding me of the splendidly -named Mr Kelley. Happy New Year to you too!

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